Stuart Munckton
Workers from factories that have been expropriated by the government of socialist President Hugo Chavez, as well as factories currently occupied by workers, have established the Revolutionary Front of Companies Occupied or Under Co-management, according to a March 9 article posted on the Hands Off Venezuela website. Delegates elected from their factories met on February 25 on the premises of Inveval, a valve producing company that was occupied by its workers and expropriated by the government last year.
The gathering discussed the process of workers' co-management that the government is encouraging with the aim of drawing workers into managing enterprises in conjunction with the state. Although the process is still in its early stages and is being implemented in different ways, co-management forms part of the struggle to transform Venezuelan society to solve the problems of the impoverished majority — a struggle known as the Bolivarian revolution.
Chavez passed a decree expropriating the Venepal paper factory in January 2005 after it was occupied by its workers and run under their control in response to attempts by the firm's owners to shut it down. The firm was re-opened as Invepal under joint worker-state management, aiming to shift its production towards serving social need. Inveval was the second firm to be expropriated. Since then, a number of other companies have been occupied by workers in response to attempts by bosses to shut them down, either due to bankruptcy or attempts to sabotage the economy to undermine the pro-worker Chavez government.
The elected president of Inveval, Jorge Paredes, addressed the representatives at the meeting and highlighted the importance of workers' participation in the revolutionary process. He emphasised the struggle against bureaucracy and corruption and argued that the revolution needed institutions made up of elected and recallable delegates. He backed Chavez's call for the recreation of Units of Electoral Battle — grassroots organisations that mobilised community support to win the referendum on Chavez's presidency in 2004 — to lead the campaign for Chavez to win 10 million votes in the presidential elections this December.
Problems with the process of co-management were discussed. Ramon Lagardera, the president of the workers' cooperative that runs Invepal, claimed that the process faced sabotage from within the revolution, arguing that there were both reformist and revolutionary tendencies within the Bolivarian movement.
The meeting adopted a manifesto for the Revolutionary Front in favour of constructing socialism in Venezuela and arguing for the extension of nationalisation of basic industry under worker and community control.
From Green Left Weekly, March 15, 2006.
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